This long gap in brewing updates is brought to you by: Warped Pours, my club’s first-ever hosted homebrew festival. And man, what an event it was. But more to the point: man, what a pain in the ass it was. As a nice little kick to the jujubes, the Brewers Association posted an article entitled “How to Start a Beer Festival” literally two days after Warped Pours wrapped up. Our club spent most of the past 3-4 months working on getting this event off the ground, and I can happily say that it was a massive success. We far surpassed our wildest expectations, raising over $9000! That money will be split between two awesome charities, after expenses (e.g. campsite costs, ice, tickets, wristbands, etc.), and honestly I’d have been surprised if we’d raised half that.

Red(ish) IPA Update

On a more relevant-to-me-and-this-blog note, I was only able to present one beer at the festival – the reddish IPA that I’ve dumped so much time into. I significantly altered the recipe to some mixed results. The latest version incorporated HopShot (5mL) into the boil in addition to a large bittering charge of Nugget. The result? Well, I finally brewed a beer with that trademark West Coast Bitterness.

Unfortunately, the beer came out with the kind of murky turbidity you’d expect from a New England IPA… and it was brown instead of red. So that murkiness made it look a little (a lot) like swamp water. Having lost my olfactory senses from too many shots to the nose, I wasn’t able to get a good read on the aroma but my friend Andy – a National BJCP judge and pro brewer – said it smelled like a “big bag o’ weed.” That’s exactly what I was going for, so it seems like this hop bill is almost nailed down. The malt bill is going to need some tweaking. The bill for this version (v3) was:

2-Row (82%)

Munich 10L (13%)

Carapils (3%)

Roasted Barley (1%)

Carafa III (1%)

I think I may remove the Carafa III or the Roasted Barley altogether, haven’t decided which to get rid of yet for Version 4, though I’m leaning towards nixing the roasted barley.

New Brews

The aforementioned Andy was over a couple weeks ago to hang out for what was essentially the maiden voyage of my new Spike conicals and my upgraded system. It wasn’t a true maiden voyage, as the Red(ish) IPA was brewed in the kettle and transferred to the conical, but it was brewed at someone else’s home and then brought back here. I also hadn’t quite figured out all the fine tuning with the system yet either.

We brewed 11 gallons of a Czech Pilsner, and the numbers hit spot on. Unfortunately – as I mentioned earlier – Andy is a pro-brewer and brought over a case of beer. Normally that’s a good thing, but not while brewing. We were a little too drunk to complete the transfer, so I bucketed the finished wort and went out to dinner with the girlfriend; the wort was transferred when we got home with 4 packs of Saflager 34/70. I’m planning to take a hydrometer reading this weekend, bump the temperature up for a diacetyl rest, and then start lagering.

Next up, I’ll be brewing a saison and a pale ale for easy drinking over the upcoming summer months. Saison brew day will be next weekend and the pale ale will be at the beginning of July.

I got some more scoresheets back from another competition I entered, and – like last time – they were not good. But honestly, I actually feel much better about this than after the previous competition, and I have couple reasons why.

The scores – a 23 and a 24 – are roughly the same as I received last time (23 and 24.5), but the feedback related to the IPA (The Howler) matched up pretty closely with my hypotheses about why these beers were tasting and scoring so poorly.

Oxidation – mainly from poor packaging – is something that came up in every judge’s review of every one of the four beers, if not by name than by description. I am a pretty big noob when it comes to packaging for competitions, so this seems like an obvious area for improvement. It’s also worth noting that I’ve been drinking The Howler from the keg for a couple weeks now and haven’t noted any of the off-flavors the judges picked out. What I have noticed are their other critiques:

Low/subdued aroma – I had an abbreviated dry-hop on this beer in order to package it for the competition

Low carbonation – the beer was rushed and wasn’t fully carbonated when packaged

Low hop flavor – something I’d noted myself for a next pass at this beer.

I entered these competitions with the hope of getting this kind of constructive feedback. I think proper packaging alone would be enough to add 6-8 points to the overall score and move it up into the “Very Good” range. It’s a beer I enjoy and plan to brew again, especially with some guidance on modifications to improve it.

Frankly, I should have been entering competitions much earlier in my homebrewing “career.” This sort of feedback is invaluable even if it hurts to read. So I’ve bookmarked some upcoming comps; let’s up we start seeing some higher scores.

This is a cross-post from my primary blog. The original post is here. Original post date: 3/23/2018.

Big doings at the homebrewery today. Took a day off from work to brew a Scottish Export ale for an upcoming club competition, and transferred my red(ish) IPA to the keg.

Kicked off around 10am, mashed in a little before 11:30am. I decided to do a 75 minute mash, because I did an extended mash on my Red(ish) IPA (now called The Howler), and I hit my target pre-boil gravity on that one. I also let the sparge rest for 20 minutes.

Unfortunately, I still came in at 1.038 pre-boil gravity, despite a target of 1.042. And though I made water adjustments to lower the pH, I naturally forgot to measure the pH of the mash. Because I’m dumb.

I did anticipate missing my target pre-boil gravity, so I set this batch up for a 75 minute boil. I broke a little from traditional Scottish ales and bittered with Nugget and added a 10 minute addition of GR Hallertau because I didn’t want to buy an ounce of Fuggles or EK Golding.

The brew itself went pretty well; I hit my pre-boil target volume and ended up with right around the 6 gallons I was expecting with a original gravity (OG) of 1.053 – off the target OG of 1.054 by just a hair.

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I made a yeast starter with some light DME, yeast nutrient and Wyeast 1268 Scottish Ale yeast on the stir plate. This thing was COOKING by the time I pitched it into the wort. I’d chilled the work to under 60°F before adding the 1.6L starter (a little over 60°F). 60°F is my target fermentation temperature for this brew. Jim from the homebrew shop said that this yeast throws some nice esters at a low fermentation temp. (He also chastised my grain bill and my hop additions because he’s a purist and a big Scottish ale brewer) You can check out the full recipe here.

Fury of the Claymore recipe

Tomorrow The Howler gets a quick turnaround to the bottle for a competition; I’ll post an update at some point if my 24 hour carbonation actually works. And tomorrow is also pizza day.

I remember sitting at the homebrew bloggers panel at Homebrew Con in 2016, and someone asked the question about what turns you off from a blog. One of the panelists said “seeing the first post is an apology for not updating for a while.” So in that vein: no apologies for you, suckers!

I’d plugged away at a couple of updates over the past six months, but I either abandoned them due to lack of time or lack of coherent thought. I know, the latter never stopped me before. Not to go too far down the rabbit hole, but there’s been a confluence of factors that contributed to the lack of posts. Work has been busy, my girlfriend moved in (with her cat, which hates my dog, but I’m working on that), and – in case you hadn’t noticed – the world is slowly sinking into the ocean faster than America is slipping into the fascist state of President Baby.

Anywho… that’s a lot of words to say that when I sit down at the computer to noodle on things homebrew-related, I’m generally exhausted. I have to divide that energy between my actual brewing (recipe formulation, education, equipment calculations, etc) and my duties as president of my homebrew club (the Mash Holes). [Editor’s Note: I had to take a five minute break as both the cat and dog came into my office, begging for attention] As the club is rapidly growing and trying to do bigger and better things, that’s taken a lot of my time and energy. Being President Baby isn’t easy.

But our big event for 2017 is in the rear-view. Wedding season is slowing down (still have 2 more left and had to bow out of one). Summer’s over. The cat and dog are starting to tolerate each other. I’m settling into a routine with work, diet/exercise, and brewing. And the girlfriend is out of town for 3 weeks. So I’ve finally had the time and motivation to sit down and write something for all my fans out there.

While You Were Out

As I just mentioned, the New England Homebrewers’ Jamboreehas come and gone. Despite some rainy weather, it was another successful outing for the Holes of Mash. We decided to go with a Viking theme for this years activities and… we kind of nailed it.

The club built a mobile Viking ship, and put a jockey box filled with mead inside of it. We rolled that bad Jackson around the campground and basically caused mayhem and (liver) destruction. Eagle-eyed readers might notice that yours truly is not in the above picture. So as not to deprive you of Viking Vinny:

On the right, for those who don’t know.

So yeah, that was thing that happened. And will probably happen again next year.

I got away from brewing a bit this summer, or brewing got away from me. I usually crank out a handful of batches between May and August, and this year I think I only slipped in one or two. So I’ve been playing catch up. I brewed two beers for Jambo; a session NEIPA which was good, and a North English Brown ale which was also just good. This past weekend I cranked out my annual Pumpkin Ale, Symphony of Decay. I didn’t tweak the recipe too much this year, but I did (finally) track down some Grade B Maple Syrup, which has a much more potent aroma. I’m hoping that gives a little more maple to this version, instead of just fermentable sugars. SoD puts me just over the halfway point (8) of my target of 15 brews this year.

I’m planning to move a little closer to that goal this weekend with a Nugget Nectar clone, named Ambrosia. I wanted to brew a “have-around” IPA, and was struggling to come up with a recipe. In looking through my BrewToad logs, I realized I’d come up with a Nugget Nectar clone I’d never brewed. This should be a good hold-over until the real deal drops in January. If it turns out well, I’ll share the recipe here (it’s already up on BrewToad, if you’re curious).

I also bid adieu to my King Kooker brewstand (which never really worked), and threw down some cash for a pair of Anvil burners that I fashioned into a two-tier system. So yet again I have to dial in numbers, but c’est la vie. I’m also finally starting to do water adjustments. I use the Bru’N Water spreadsheet for now, along with my local water report, but I’m going to finish reading Palmer’s Water and see how far off I am.

So that’s the long and short of the past six months. See you in a half a year?

As I wrote last time, my Swinging Cowboy IPA was less than stellar on first taste. I also noted at the time that it wasn’t a fair comparison given the immaturity of the beer so close to its dry-hopping and carbonation. We’re now seven days removed from that last update, so how’s the Cowboy now?

In short: much better.

Aroma

I had complained about the grassy aroma wafting off this beer, three days from its last dry-hop charge. Today that grassy-ness has faded almost completely and has been replaced by a wallop of strong citrus character.

Appearance

As you can see from the photo above, I have very greasy fingerprints and a Megaman doll. You can a pretty fair representation of the beer’s color and clarity (or lack thereof). Without the bright light behind it, the beer is a shade or two more orange. Overall, this is what I was shooting for given the light grain bill and the NE IPA style I’d attached to it.

Flavor

This was the biggest area of improvement, and thank Cromfor that. The vegetal, grassy flavor is almost completely gone, rounding into a nice smooth bitterness. It’s still there, but much less pronounced and I think by the time JAMBO rolls around next weekend it should be a distant memory. In its place, the bitterness I mentioned is still prevalent, but there’s a much stronger fruitiness. Mango, papaya, tangerine, all those expensive orange-colored fruits that Yuppie moms buy at Whole Foods. This isn’t near as fruity as your average Trillium brew, but it has a much stronger bitterness. Similar (but not comparable) to Heady Topper.

Mouthfeel

Still rich and full-for-an-IPA. Not quite as “juicy” as a Treehouse or Trillium; again I’d put it closer to the OG of NE IPA’s (Heady) in mouthfeel. Creamy, but not chewy. Right where I like it (that’s what she said).

Overall

Talk about a night-and-day difference. I may have accidentally (but happily) sped up the aging process due to a gas leak in the keg. The gas connecting post wouldn’t seal, so whenever I removed the gas line – say, to gas another keg – all of the CO2 escaped. This happened multiple times, most likely introducing oxygen. While normally this would be bad, it is my theory that this help scrub out the grassy and vegetal notes much faster. I can’t really run a test on it (I’m not the Brulosophy eggheads), because I’ve now fixed that leak and don’t know how much scrubbing is actually left.

Overall, I’m now MUCH happier with this beer and excited to serve it at JAMBO. There’s also an upcoming homebrew competition for IPAs that I might consider entering if there’s any leftovers.

Looking into this my chest freezer this fine Wednesday evening (what is it with me and Wednesdays?), I realized that I had two different kegs of IPA. The older of the two is Hustle and Swagger, an IPA brewed with the myriad of free hops I received at Homebrew Con 2016. The younger is a just-kegged, double-dry-hopped take on my old Eighty-Sixed recipe called Swinging Cowboy*. So I figured I try them out side-by-side and see what I like and dislike about each IPA. First, the recipes.

Yeasts

Another look.

Comparison

Miscellaneous

Hustle & Swagger is noticeably dark in color, though the calculated difference is only supposed to about about 1 SRM.

Both beers were dry-hopped, but Swinging Cowboy was double-dry hopped in the fermenter, while Hustle & Swagger was dry-hopped in the keg.

Neither beer is particularly clear and both contain some hop particles.

Aroma

Despite being brewed on 6/30, Hustle & Swagger still packs a noticeable hop aroma. That aroma is predominantly “green” and “dank.” This is probably from the multitude of different hops that went into this thing. There is a citrusy, sweet, fruit aroma on the back end. Almost like tropical fruit candy, but less artificial if that makes sense.

Only three days removed from its second dry-hop charge, Swinging Cowboy has a grassy nose. There’s underlying citrus in there behind it, but this smell a lot like lawn clippings (and not because I mowed the lawn today).

Winner: Hustle & Swagger, by a nose.

Appearance

As noted above, both beers are turpid with some small hop particles swirling. In Hustle & Swagger this is likely due to the hops still being in the keg. With Swinging Cowboy, the beer just finished carbing and hasn’t settled yet. This is the very first pour of the beer.

They are fairly similar, with SC being a shade lighter.

Winner: Draw

Flavor

Hustle and Swagger has mellowed nicely. This was originally one of the most bitter beers I’d brewed, but some of that has evened out. There’s still a nice bitterness but there’s more hop flavor coming across: some citrus, mango, and a hint of sweetness before a bitter finish. Not world-class, but pretty good.

Woah. Um… what’s going on with Swinging Cowboy? The flavor is a… not good. Vegetal, grassy. There’s hints of citrus buried underneath but this will need some time to clear up, much like the aroma.

Winner: Hustle & Swagger

Mouthfeel

Hustle & Swagger is a bit thin for what I was going for; I prefer the juicier, fuller New England-style bodies on my IPAs (actually on most styles). This is within range for an IPA, and not watery but not dry enough on the back-end for that West Coast bite.

In contrast, Swinging Cowboy is right where it should be. It feels substantial without being thick, viscous, or chewy. This is right in line with where I like my IPAs.

Winner: Swinging Cowboy

Overall

By the numbers, Hustle & Swagger is the clear winner, which is a bit of a disappointment.

Of course, this comparison isn’t exactly “fair” or “scientific.” Swagger is over a month old and Cowboy is fresh off the dry-hops.

That said, Swagger is the better beer right now, but I’m not sure Cowboy won’t surpass it in about a week or so.

Final Thoughts

Truth be told, I’m not sold on either of these beers. Hustle & Swagger is okay, but not up to snuff. I think the “kitchen sink” approach I took with this beer left it flawed and muddled. Still drinkable, but not worth attempting again. Swinging Cowboy on the other hand… I don’t know what to think of this beer right now. When I tasted the hydrometer sample it was a little off, and fully-carbed I’m not so sure what happened here.

Given the busy-ness of this summer, the rushed nature of both these brew days and the state of my brewing equipment (read: not properly cleaned), I wouldn’t be surprised if there weren’t significant flaws hiding behind all the hops in these beers. It’s hard for me to say. Much like my momma is blind to my many flaws, I have trouble nit-picking my own creations. I still have some hope that Cowboy will get better with a bit of age, but I think Swagger is as good as it’s going to get right now, which is a bit disappointing.

Lesson learned: I need to better prepare for my brew days and need to re-dedicate myself to mess of chemicals, tubing, fixtures, and kegs in my bathroom that need a thorough cleaning.

Cheers!

* The story behind “Swinging Cowboy” is a long one that I may regale you with after this year’s Homebrew Jamboree (aka JAMBO).

If we learn from our mistakes, then I am well on my way to a PhD in homebrewing.

I talked last time about Hustle and Swagger, a concept so dumb only I could think it up (and hope it would work). Unsurprisingly, this beer isn’t the greatest IPA to ever be brewed.

But, perhaps surprisingly, it isn’t the worst either.

I made two major mistakes with Hustle and Swagger. The first I somewhat expected but chose not to avoid, and the second I should’ve expected but didn’t. First, I threw way too many hops I was unfamiliar with into this beer. The result is a pretty muddled mess, but not undrinkable. There’s hints of the exotic citrus, fruit, melon and whatever-else flavors from the Zythos, Pekko, and Equinox hops, but none of them really shine through. In fact, they’re hindered by my second mistake.

My second mistake was dry-hopping in the keg. This, in and of itself, isn’t a mistake, but I used stainless steel tea infusion balls instead of muslin bags. This allowed a lot of the hop particles to escape into the beer and therefore into the glass. The result was a strongly bitter flavor with some green, grassy flavor notes. The bitterness and grassiness overpower the sweeter, fruitier flavors.

All that said, the beer isn’t a total bust. It has a strong, pleasant aroma that showcases more of the fruit and citrus than the grass. The bitterness becomes more subdued after the first few sips and more of the flavors start to appear. It’s also kind of a pretty beer:

Ironically, before the in-keg dry-hopping this beer was crystal clear:

The yeast was also a bit of a failure. Despite building up a robust starter, the beer never fully attenuated. Given the high charge of bitterness from the hop floaties, that’s probably a blessing in disguise. The residual sweetness helps make the beer less biting.

The last bit of not-so-bad news: as the beer slowly ages, all its flaws are starting to mellow. It’s become gradually a better and better beer over time. Obviously there’s a point of diminishing return when aging an IPA, but more importantly there’s a point of diminishing return of leaving a beer in a needed homebrew keg.

I don’t foresee too many issues finishing this IPA, though I do wish it had turned out better. Live and learn.